The Matrix: Reprogrammed
by mooncycle
Summary: An alternate version of the original Matrix movie. Please R


Author's note: This is an alternate version of the original Matrix movie. The characters here will have different personalities and traits at times. Some characters from the last two films will also appear. Scenes are briefly described, so the rest will be left to imagination. Please read and review.

Scene starts in Merovingian's restaurant. Agent Smith is seen walking to the table where the Frenchman is sitting. His security is around him as usual.

"Bon jour, Agent Smith."

"Let's save greeting for a more opportune time. I understand that you have information on the anomaly."

"They call him the One, yes?"

"Such a primitive brain believes such nonsense."

"Of course. But you and I, we come from a much higher area in the pecking order. We live such long and significant lives, unlike our human brethren."

"Brethren? You've been in this place too long, Frenchman."

Merovingian laughs. "I have, Agent Smith. But enough chitchat let us get down to business. The one you seek is know to his peers as Thomas Anderson. He lives a normal life, pays his taxes, and he helps his landlady carry out her garbage. His second life is lived in computers, where he goes by the hacker alias, Neo. Obviously, he claims to be the One."

"It is utter nonsense. I need to know his whereabouts. The Architect wishes to know as well."

"My friend, doe the Architect rule our lives? Do we answer to the one who created us with free will?"

"Stop this, Frenchman. Our own quotas must be met. We must fulfill our purpose."

Merovingian exhales heavily. "He is a programmer at a very successful software company."

The scene changes to Anderson's cubicle. He is typing away, caught up in his work. Agent Smith walks up and stands outside the cubicle. He observes Anderson for a moment, noticing it is not work, but an IM window.

"Thomas Anderson?"

He never looks up from the screen. "Yeah, that's me."

"Mr. Anderson, we have reason to believe you have spoken with a certain terrorist." At this point, he does look up from the screen. However, he looks puzzled. The scene then moves to the questioning room with Smith and Anderson seated at the table. Two more agents are also present. They are standing behind Smith.

"He is a man known as Morpheus. We will not hassle you further if you cooperate. We will also turn a blind eye to the seemingly endless list of computer crimes. We must know when and where you spoke to him and what information you have about him."

"Why should I tell you? He's not a terrorist. He is a soldier in the war to destroy the Matrix." Smith and the two agents stare directly at Anderson.

Smith continued. "What do you know about the Matrix?" Silence. Anderson does not blink, flinch or show any emotion. Smith stands, slams his fist on the table, and yells, "WHAT DID HE TELL YOU ABOUT THE MATRIX?" Nothing. The agents grab Anderson and slam him against the wall.

"You're going to help us, whether you want to or not." Smith takes out the bug, and rips open Anderson's shirt. He struggles free, attacks and injures both agents, and takes the bug from Smith. He the shoves the bug in Smiths mouth. Smith falls over, goes into a seizure, and his body explodes into several pieces which dissolve in the air. Neo has already run out of the room, dodging security. The elevator opens, and Trinity steps out.

"Neo, follow me."

"How do I know I can trust you?"

"Would a security guard wear vinyl?"

"Good point. Who are you?"

"Trinity."

"The one that cracked the IRS d-base?"

"Guilty. Come on!" They come to a window that leads to a scaffold. She goes out. Neo hesitates, then follows.

"We'll take the scaffold to get to the roof," she says.

"No way. No way! This is crazy!"

"There are only two ways out. The roof, or with them," says another person in vinyl and leather.

"What the…."

"Nice to see you, too, Neo. I'm Cipher."

"Come on, Neo!" They all scramble up the scaffold. The agents and security guards are then seen from the window and they look out, never seeing a trace of the three. A helicopter is waiting on the roof. Apoch is at the controls. Several armed guards are lying dead on the ground around them. Neo is shocked to see such a sight. The helicopter flies off the roof and goes across the city, landing on top of an abandoned building. They all get out. Trinity leads Neo to a room.

"Be honest. He knows more than you can imagine." Trinity walks off and he enters.

"Hello, Neo. I am Morpheus. Come and sit." They sit. "Do you know why you're here?"

"I think so. I'm the One."

"Do you even know what that means?"

"I feel like I don't exist in this world. I always understood those people who told the stories about vampires, werewolves and aliens. I've seen close friends killed for knowing less than I know. I've lost family as well. When I'm around, it's like the world in manipulated, almost like I am not supposed to see something."

"You are here because you threaten the very existence of man. If it weren't for the opinions of my crew, you'd be dead now." The scene changes to a room where the crew is set up to find Neo's mind in the power plant.

"Buckle your seat belt, Dorothy. Kansas is going bye-bye," Cipher quips. Neo sits in a chair and the crew straps on wires. Neo blacks out. He awakes in the power plant and immediately, his body is drained out. The Nebuchadnezzer picks him up. He then sees Morpheus' face.

"Welcome to the real world." Neo is shown around the ship and they explain the real world history. He later meets up with Tank for training.

"Now this operation stuff is really boring. How about some combat training?"

"I'm going to learn ju jitsu?" Neo goes through several programs and finally stops for a rest.

"I know kung fu!" Morpheus has been watching from a distance. He has now walked up to Neo.

"Show me." They are strapped into the fight program. "Let's go." Neo and Morpheus fight for a few minutes. It entertains the rest of the crew. Neo finally pins Morpheus down. Morpheus is surprised. No one had ever beaten him before, much less a newly freed mind. "Load the jump program." They are transported to the top of a building. Morpheus jumps to the roof of another building.

"Neo, let me see you jump!" Neo hesitates, then follows. He comes short of the roof, but grabs the ledge, and he does not fall. The crew is impressed. No one had ever made the first jump. Morpheus is still unconvinced.

The next morning. The crew is seen eating goop at a table. Morpheus walks in.

"Tank. Broadcast depth. We're going to see her."

"Who?" asks Neo.

"The Oracle," says Tank. Neo, Cipher and Morpheus are strapped in. The rest of the crew waits behind. They enter the matrix in an abandoned warehouse. Cipher stands guard at their exit. Neo and Morpheus take a car to an apartment a few blocks away. They take the elevator to the Oracle's apartment. They knock and she answers.

"Morpheus!" She hugs him and turns to Neo. "And you must be the new recruit. Welcome. Please come in." Neo looks around to see children manipulating objects. A small boy holds a spoon. He speaks to Neo.

"Never trust what you have come to believe; instead, try to realize the truth. There is no spoon." The boy proceeds to bend the spoon telekinetically. The Oracle sees Neo has stopped to look at the children.

"Yes, the new people always love this display. Come, I baked some cookies. Have a seat." They sit at the kitchen table. Morpheus is seen listening in. She points Neo's attention to a plaque on the wall. "Do you know what that means? It means 'Know thyself'. Well, do you?"

"I know I'm the One. I've seen too much not to be. I've done too much not to be. Morpheus doesn't believe. I don't know what I'm doing wrong."

"Nothing. You are the One. You have no doubt. Do what you will with what I have told you."

The scene goes back to the warehouse. Cipher is standing alone. He hears a noise and turns to see the Frenchman. Cipher points his gun.

"Stop right there. I mean it."

"Mr. Reagan, I mean no harm to you, if you'll cooperate. We both know this war is not winnable. However, if you help my cause, the reward will be great. All I ask is you deliver Mr. Anderson to us."

"Us?" The twins and the rest of the Merovingian's assassins crowd around.

"I'll never give up the One!" He fires at the Merovingian and the bullet is stopped in midair. The assassins run toward Cipher. The twins are now gone. He fires at all of them until the ammo is gone. The scene switches back to the Oracle's apartment. Neo and Morpheus walk out the door and down the hallway toward the elevator.

"Nice lady, huh Neo?"

"Yes, but I know for sure I'm not the One. If she tells me what I thought was true, maybe I believed a lie." Morpheus is confused. The elevator door opens. The twins are seen.

"Run, Neo!" They dash toward the stairs. The twins follow. Finally, Morpheus jumps out a window. Neo is far behind with the twins closing in. Neo stops and runs toward them. They pull out their blades and Neo is able to dodge them. Neo grabs a nearby fire extinguisher and sprays the two. He then uses it to break off a sprinkler head, and water falls from the ceiling. Neo jumps out the window. Many people have now heard the fire alarm and have filled the stairs, blocking the twins from the window. By the time they get there and look out, Neo and Morpheus are long gone.

"We are getting aggravated."

"Yes we are."

_Neo catches up to Morpheus. They run several blocks until they get back to the old warehouse. They find the exit, and Cipher's body is lying dead close by. Neo and Morpheus are terrified. _

"We've got to get back. They already know where we are," says Morpheus._ The phone rings. Morpheus picks up and is transported back to his body. Neo hangs it up. _

_The scene skips to a white room with television monitors on the wall. The Architect is seen sitting in a chair. The Merovingian is standing._

"I do not follow your renegade logic, Frenchman. You destroy these freed humans before they are allowed to finish my work. Your carelessness will cost us all a great deal."

Merovingian chuckles. "Architect, you insult me? I hold more power in this realm than you."

"That is merely a sign of ignorance if you say that."

"Ignorance? My predecessors knew just as much as I, and still you saw them as valuable assets to the Matrix, this so-called perfect equation."

"Do not lecture me on my creation, exile! This world is older than you are. I was there when it was written. I wrote it. You are also a mere line of code of my creation."

"Monsieur, did you write me with free will? Do I not choose what path I take? I chose to be who I am. I chose to be the best. I do not choose to follow your set of ancient rules. We must take our destiny into our own hands."

"Frenchman, if I wish to destroy you, all I have to do is give the word. You will do as I say. The One is not to be killed. His companions will also live until the proper time of death."

"We shall see whose will is done Architect. I must do what must be done." _Merovingian storms out. The Architect watches with an evil grin. The scene goes back to the warehouse where Neo stands waiting for another ring. He looks around. The twins are walking slowly toward the phone. Neo gets nervous. The phone rings again, and he picks up. One twin throws a blade at the phone, slicing it in half. Neo's jaw drops. The scene changes to the _Nebuchadnezzer_ and Morpheus sees that the line has been severed. _

"Tank send me back! Neo's in trouble!"

"I can't, sir. He's on his own now. The cut the hard-lines for two square miles." _An alarm goes off. Sentinels are seen in a hologram. The entire crew gets wide-eyed. Morpheus speaks up._

"Oh, no. Hurry, Neo. Tank, charge the EMP."

Neo is again seen next to the broken phone. He glances at Cipher's body once more. Neo runs. The twins are in hot pursuit. Morpheus is seen again. He looks at Trinity and Switch. His hand is on the EMP control.

"He's going to make it."

Neo is still running. He picks up his phone and dials Tank.

"Get me out of here!"

"Run down to the end of the street. There a phone at Wells and Lake. You can make it, Neo!"

Neo has no choice. He dodges blades, bullets and pedestrians. Agents are also seen following behind the twins. The camera stops at a newsstand. The Architect is seen as the vendor. He looks at the chase and smiles.

_The _Nebuchadnezzer _crew has now manned gun turrets. Morpheus and Tank continue to watch Neo on the screen. The sentinels breach the hull. Apoch, Switch, Trinity, Mouse, and Dozer are all firing. Dozer and Mouse are killed instantly. Morpheus grabs a gun. _

"FOR ZION!" _He fires ruthlessly and Sentinels fall all around. Switch has now been killed. Apoch right after._ _The Sentinels pull back. _

"Hold your position. They'll be back," says Morpheus.

Neo reaches the phone at Wells and Lake to find it ringing. A white Cadillac Escalade is seen across the street. The twins materialize inside it. Neo runs harder. He gets inside the phone booth as the twins drive into it. Several cars pile in to the Escalade. The Agents slow down to observe the wreckage.

"There are no survivors."

"None." _The agents walk off eerily._ _Neo's dead body is seen in the rubble. The _Nebuchadnezzer _crew is very somber now. Neo is dead. _

_The Architect walks up to Neo's body and touches him on the head._

"Neo, wake up. You're not through yet." Architect smiles. _Neo's real world body now shows life signs to the_ Nebuchadnezzer _crew. Trinity is lying on Neo's body in tears._

"What the…."

Tank chimes in. "He's alive!"

"Impossible. Unless…. He is… the One…." says Morpheus.

"Oh, no! They're back!" Trinity yells. _All except Neo take guns. The EMP is right beside him. He puts his hand out to turn the knob, but the Sentinels fall dead when he points at them. Morpheus looks at Neo._

"He's beginning to believe!" _Neo finally loads the EMP. All Sentinels fall dead. The lights blink and Neo faints and falls down. The crew runs up beside him. Fade out._

A computer screen is producing various numbers mixed with Matrix code. Finally, "system failure" appears on the screen. Neo's voice is now heard.

"I'm not telling you how it will end. I'm telling you how it will begin. The choice I leave to you."

Kid looks at his computer screen, which has now reverted to normal. He looks around. No one is there.

"Neo, I believe," he whispers. _End._


End file.
